The Department of Physics and the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities will co-sponsor “Conversations with the Starry Messenger: Kepler, Galileo, and the New Science,” featuring speaker Aviva Rothman, assistant professor of history at Case Western Reserve University. The lecture will be held via Zoom today (Sept. 3) from 4 to 5 p.m.
Rothman’s lecture will delve into the relationship between astronomers Galileo and Kepler, and their contributions to astronomy and science. Upon hearing of Galileo’s new telescopic discoveries, Kepler wrote a book in support of Galileo’s work. Yet that book was read by many as an indictment of Galileo, rather than a defense.
This story, and the subsequent relationship between these two famous astronomers, will shed light on the contested nature of science at the dawn of the telescopic age, and on alternate visions of what the ideal scientist ought to be like.